Microfluidic analyses of biological systems are widely used in medical and biological research in order to assess the mutual effects of various combinations of reagents and samples. So-called microtitre plates have been developed, which are flat plates with a plurality of wells used as small reactor chambers. Such microtitre plates have become a standard tool in analytical research and clinical diagnostic testing laboratories.
In particular, with chips to be used in patch clamp techniques, good adhesion of the cell to the chip is required, so that a high-resistance seal can be obtained between the chip and the cell membrane (a “gigaseal”).
US2002/0110847 describes a method for measuring a state variable of a biological cell.
S. Wilson et al. IEEE Sensors 2009 Conference, 1538-1541 describes novel processing for a patch clamp system.
Other microfluidic systems are described in US2011/0083961, EP 2 037 258, US 2004/0146849, WO01/56771, WO02/16651 and US2005/0279730.
Despite efforts to date, the need remains for a chip having improved cell adhesion characteristics, which can be manufactured in a simple, effective manner.